We wouldn’t say we are addicted to coffee. We would say we love coffee…and often!

And we especially love this great little site dedicated to coffee art. Fun.

artinmycoffee.com

@artinmycoffee

In honor of Mother’s Day this coming Sunday, a few interesting facts about Mom’s and digital:

Mom’s are tech savvy (and love Pinterest): Our moms are actually more tech savvy than we give them credit for. In a recent study (http://www.babycenter.com/100_press-release-21st-century-mom-media_10365618.bc) researchers from Baby Center (http://www.babycenter.com) and Nielsen found that Moms are the new force in technology, becoming early adopters of the latest tech trends. Recently this was especially true in regard to the massive growth of Pinterest (http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/958469/how-moms-can-use-pinterest).

Mom’s and blogging: Stay-at home moms have been blogging for several years now and the numbers are increasing annually. One in three bloggers are moms with the majority of bloggers being women according to previous Nielsen studies (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/buzz-in-the-blogosphere-millions-more-bloggers-and-blog-readers) reported earlier this year.

Mothers have confessed to mobile-multi-tasking by browsing online content and chatting on the phone or sending text messages. In order to target this mass usage of moms on their mobiles, marketing campaigns are gearing more towards mobile ads. (http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/those-multitasking-smartphone-connected-tv-loving-moms-139710)

Brands love Mom’s: To honor moms of Olympic athletes, Proctor & Gamble has rejuvenated their Thank You Mom (http://www.youtube.com/user/PGThankYouMom) campaign online and will begin airing the commercials during the 2012 games.

With great love and admiration Digital Pulp would like to wish all of the moms in our lives a very Happy Mother Day! #thankyoumom

We’re working with several clients on assignments that incorporate this design technique. Very interesting and exciting stuff…more on that to come.

In the meantime, we thought it would be fun to revisit our Holiday site: youbetternotstress.com, which was developed with Responsive Design.

It was a big hit, and we had a blast putting it together. Have a look.

As many of you know, Digital Pulp has over the years worked with some of the leading College’s and Universities. Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, Emerson College, The NYU Stern School of Business, to name a few. Over the years we’ve learned quite a bit about the .edu space. We’ve also met and worked with some amazing people. So in the spirit of furthering the efforts to improve online experiences in the .edu space, we’ve started a new Twitter feed: @edu_MarketingIdeas.

Through this Twitter feed (entirely curated by Digital Pulp), we’ll be sharing our thoughts on best practices in the .edu space, and how schools need to think about leveraging the digital space to attract new students, faculty, stay engaged with their alumni and donors, and improve their over all digital brand presence. Some of the leading marketers in the .edu space are already a part of those following @edu_MarketingIdeas….we invite you to join the conversation.

So check it out and please “Follow” @edu_MarketingIdeas. Thanks!

https://twitter.com/#!/edu_marketing

Thing have been pretty busy around here. So busy, in fact, that we’re adding to our Executive team.

We’re thrilled to announce that Brian Loube has joined Digital Pulp as Executive Producer. Brian brings a wealth of incredible experience to DP. He was the original founder of the interactive division at R/GA, and over the course of four years built the business into a group of 35.

That’s impressive and all, but what we think makes Brian super cool is that he ran the first online team at Sesame Street, where he built innovative and creative user experiences for kids of all ages – and got to hang out with Elmo.

Awesome.

Brian is well versed in all aspects of digital marketing, including Social Media and Online Marketing. He has worked in the public and private sectors, and has teams that created solutions for variety of brands including Pepsi, AOL, Mattel, IBM, and Levis. Brian brings a unique and very clever perspective to managing digital projects.

Welcome Brian!

We’re also thrilled to announce that Sarah Blecher is evolving to the newly created role of Director, User Experience. Sarah has evolved a love for all things UE, so now she can focus her energies and shape the way we make Great Things Happen!

Onwards and Upwards!

We spend a lot of time thinking through our clients’ needs and developing custom software solutions that enable them to communicate better and connect to their audience with less effort and more results. But not everybody can work with a digital agency to architect their ideal application, and sometimes it’s people whose work matters most that have the least resources to acquire digital tools. Teachers often fall in that category.

That’s why we love to see off-the-shelf tools that make educators’ work easier and more productive…and cost nothing.  Just look at all the great ways a teacher can use Pinterest to help enrich their students’ experience. Each one of the capabilities in this infographic might have been on an individual teacher’s wish list, and now all these powerful features been served up on a silver platter to anyone who wants them.

So much of student work now happens online, and methods for aggregating content are key to enabling teachers to steer their class’ conversation. The way Pinterest allows easy group sharing and commenting is perfect for instantaneous presentation and collaborative research, and the visual paradigm makes any content lively and inviting for the class.

It’s no wonder that Pinterest has gone from a prototype in 2010 to become the #3 social network in the country, and we’re glad that such a robust tool is finding its way into the hands of teachers.  (It’s just too bad that kids under 13 aren’t allowed to pin!)

Pinterest: http://targetx.com/facebook-without-the-whining/

Facebook: http://www.eduniverse.org/facebooks-new-feature-groups-oberlin

All good subjects (and including others, such as the use of online video,  other social media platforms to recruit and retain, etc.) and it’s important that institutions pay attention to the ever evolving landscape.

Often what gets lost in the swirl of all of the new media platforms available to .edu marketers is in fact the most important issue: your school’s brand.

What is your school’s unique proposition? What makes it special as compared to other schools your prospective students may be considering?

As competition continues to increase for new students it’s more and more important that a school identify and own a unique brand position.

Colleges take the competition among high school seniors for slots at their schools very seriously. Over the years, many schools have altered their recruiting tactics to fit the market. How? By turning themselves into brand names. via Peterson’s College Search

We’ve worked with school’s that have tackled this issue and built a unique online experience that tells their story in a user-friendly and unique fashion.

The NYU Stern School of Business is a great success story. We worked with them to develop their brand proposition, “Possible”, and their school website reflects this unique positioning. NYU Stern can now say that they are the one school that allows students to experience the richest environment for learning business in the country by their commitment to four values:

Academic Excellence, Collaborative Community, IQ + EQ, + The Energy of a Global Hub NYC) = “Possible”

So when you are building your schools new site, always remember that in addition to sorting through the opportunities to engage with potential students (and faculty) that you also need to have a unique, differentiating, and engaging Brand platform.

http://www.stern.nyu.edu/